(VNF) - The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) of Vietnam awarded the “Insignia for Contribution to Education and Training in Vietnam” to Mr. Hiroshi Tanikawa, 74, Chairman of the Asian Education and Friendship Association (AEFA) of Japan in an award ceremony held on March 15^th in Hanoi.

The insignia is the highest award recognizes inpiduals that have made significant contributions to Vietnam’s education and training.

Addressing the ceremony, Nguyen Xuan Vang, Director-General of International Education Development of MoET, appreciated the active contribution by Mr. Hiroshi Tanikawa over the past 10 years in Vietnam, and expressing his deep thanks to him.

Nguyen Xuan Vang (R), on behalf of MoET leaders, presented the insignia to Mr. Hiroshi Tanikawa, recognizing his contribution to Vietnam’s education and training. (Photo: Cu Hoa)

During his first visit to Vietnam in 2004, Mr. Tanikawa was deeply touched by the friendliness and open-heartedness of the children, teachers and villagers at a small school at Lang Son, despite the poor conditions here. He was really surprised and wanted to help the children by building new schools for them.

Since its foundation in 2004, AEFA has built 151 schools for children in the remote, mountainous regions of Vietnam. The organisation prioritized remote districts in the Central Highlands - a region with a severe shortage of classrooms including Kon Tum Province (54 schools), Quang Nam Province (29 schools); Tuyen Quang Province (14 schools); Dak Lak Province (9 schools) and Quang Binh, Nghe An, Thanh Hoa, Thai Nguyen. The constructions are estimated to cost about USD 6 million.

The schools and dormitories provide safe, clean classrooms for students make conditions more favourable for thousands of students to attend classes, decrease chances of them dropping out and improve the overall quality of education for rural areas of Vietnam.

Mr. Hiroshi Tanikawa also helped develop scholarship programmes which helped many Vietnamese students.

In addition to building new schools under national standards, the project also has established cultural exchanges between schools of the project and the Japanese students. Students will have a chance to exchange letters, drawings, cultural information, learning tools or memorial gifts in order to strengthen solidarity and mutual understandings between the future Vietnamese and Japanese generation.

Mr. Hiroshi Tanikawa spoke about his dream of building 200 schools in Vietnam.

For his part, Mr. Hiroshi Tanikawa expressed his great honor to be presented with the prestigious insignia from MoET.

"I am very happy to be able to do something to help Vietnamese students in remote, mountainous areas. After the construction of a school, we began to conduct friendly exchanges between Vietnam and Japan. Two countries’ students have exchanged letters, drawings, cultural information, learning tools and learned about each other. More than 50 schools in Japan have conducted friendly exchange activities with Vietnamese schools. My dream is to build 200 schools in Vietnam, "said Mr. Tanikawa./.

Translated by Minh Phuong